Your child and technology (Key Stage 3)

By the time your child reaches years 7-9, using classroom technology should be an every day occurrence. They should be starting to use technology to find and evaluate information, develop and present their own ideas and begin to reflect on how technology can further their own learning across the curriculum.

How will my child use technology?

During Key Stage 3, your child should feel confident about using technology to improve many aspects of their learning, for example:

• using the internet or digital sources (CD-ROMs) to source information, check its accuracy and judg its value and bias.
• test predictions and discover patterns and relationships by exploring, evaluating and developing models
• design information systems and suggest improvements to existing ones
• use ICT to plan, test and modify a sequence of instructions, recognising where a group of instructions needs repeating and automating frequently used processes
• combine text, sound and images to draft, refine and present ideas
• use a range of ICT tools to present information in an interesting and appealing way to suit different types of audiences
• review, modify and evaluate work as it progresses
• reflect on their own and others’ uses of ICT to help them develop and improve their ideas and the quality of their work.

What types of technology are we talking about?

By Key Stage 3, the internet should play a major role in your child’s education – from researching historical facts to building and testing basic scientific models. They should also begin to experience other technologies such as digital camera and video, sound recording equipment, robots and even video conferencing.